「有邊讀邊學生物英文」是慈濟大學MOOCs線上課程，目的在提供高三升大一生醫領域相關學系學生、以及對生醫領域有興趣的社會人士一個學習專業字首與字根的法門。
生醫領域剛進入時常遇到的問題就是：生物、醫學乃至化學領域的專業字彙極多。但這些專業字彙，大多是由拉丁文與希臘文構成的字首（prefix）與字尾（suffix）組成，本課程由個別字首與字尾的介紹，配合舉例與作業，使學習者能逐漸熟悉專業字彙的組成，甚至在未來遇到不認識的專業字彙時，能夠「有邊讀邊」，猜個八九不離十！
"English for Biology Majors" is a MOOCs course from Tzu Chi University. Using lots of examples to teach prefix and suffix in biomedical terms. All you need is 15 minutes everyday to learn them all !

2016年4月5日 星期二

How come iris can be related to both eyes and plants?

We have learned iris in Lesson 14-1. The prefix for iris, irid(o)- is derived from rainbow (please referred to Lesson 5-3).

Iris plant is a monocot with beautiful flowers. The artist Van Gogh drew a famous painting for it. How come tissue in the eye become a plant?

Well, as we mention in this article first, the tissue in our eyes get the name iris because different people has different color of iris. Therefore, the Greek word for rainbow, iridos, is borrowed for describing the tissue in our eyes.

How about the plant iris? Isn't all iris blue?

Actually not. Because that famous painting from Van Gogh, we thought all iris are blue. Actually there are many different shades of colors for iris.